Chabad Women Emissaries to Reconnect and Unite Across Six Continents

Thousands of women leaders and role models in communities around the globe will gather later this month at the annual International Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Women Emissaries (Kinus Hashluchos) for a weekend of camaraderie, bonding and inspiration, as they reconnect with their sister emissarieson six continents and more than 100 countries and territories.

The conference, which began in 1991 at the behest of the Rebbe—Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory—will be a hybrid model with all sessions held online, alongside smaller in-person sessions in Brooklyn, N.Y. From the first conference with 65 attendees, the last in-person conference in February 2020—just a month before Covid was detected in New York—saw 3,000 women emissaries get together.

The conference will run from Jan. 19-24, and is held over the weekend of the yahrzeit of Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka Schneerson, of righteous memory, who passed away on 22 Shevat, 1988.

For the many emissaries who struggle to leave behind their families and communities for the weekend, this year’s conference will provide the flexibility to tune in when they can, from where they can. “There is a lot of excitement around this new format,” Rivkie Kahanov, co-director of Chabad-Lubavitch of Northeast Florida and a member of the Kinus executive committee, tells Chabad.org.

The online format also means that a wider pool of contributors and panelists are available to lead the session and workshops with many participants more comfortable in that setting. “Online sessions give a voice to some of those we don’t normally hear from,” says Ella Potash, co-director of Chabad of Redwood City, Calif., who explains that some people are hesitant to speak up at a crowded conference, while the online environment can make listeners into more active participants, adding that online sessions mean it’s easier to jump from one session to the next from the comfort of one’s own home. “I’m very much looking forward to the Kinus and being able to reconnect with other shluchos in similar circumstances,” she says.

Those attending in New York will again gather at the Ohel in Queens, N.Y. (File photo)

For those who prefer it, in-person attendance will be an option with smaller focus groups convening in a safe manner, following all current health guidelines and the recommendations of the Kinus medical advisory board. While current health realities make the yearly banquet unfeasible, emissaries will gather online and in-person to mark the passing of Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka Schneerson and the culmination of a weekend of reinvigoration and unity on Jan. 23.

“We hope that we will all be able to safely gather physically very soon,” says Kahanov. “The theme of this year’s conference is the role of women in bringing Moshiach, who will end all sorrow and suffering, and reunite us all once again, in Jerusalem.”

As always, the Kinus will go on thanks to the work of many volunteers. (File photo)